Penn's top fencing recruit represented U.S. in Atlanta

When most students think about the 'strip,' they probably conjure images of glittering casinos in Las Vegas or the nightlife in Los Angeles. But for Penn freshman Cliff Bayer -- the No. 1 ranked American fencer in men's foil -- the 'strip' is the 2-by-14 meter area in which he has competed for the last 10 years. Bayer, whose bid for a medal at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta ended with a first-round loss, was admitted to Penn in 1995, but deferred matriculation so he could train with the hope of landing one of three spots on the U.S. Olympic men's foil squad. "[My coach] was basically saying, 'If you want to go for it, I will back you up 150 percent,'" said Bayer, who was the youngest fencer ever to make the U.S. Olympic team. Although his coach, Yefim Litvan, had previously told Bayer that 2000 was his Olympic year, Bayer won the national championship in 1995 -- placing him firmly on the road to Atlanta. And if he had won his first match against Oleksiy Bryzgalov of Ukraine, Bayer would have faced Italy's Alessandro Puccini -- the eventual gold medalist -- in the next round. "You train for years to have an opportunity at the gold," Bayer said. "There are no guarantees, especially in the Olympics, because it's just such a crazy atmosphere, and it's so easy to get swept up in it." Now Bayer, currently the sixth-ranked under-20 player in the world, will compete for the Red and Blue instead of the red, white and blue. But first, he plans to focus on the transition from a grueling training and competition schedule to a rigorous academic schedule. Although he said his latest experiences at Penn have been "pretty overwhelming" -- for instance, forgetting words in his foreign-language class that he once knew -- his new friends have helped ease the transition. "It's nice to be around kids again," said Bayer, who spent most of his time fencing with people in their mid- and late-20s. Bayer, originally from New York City, began fencing when he was nine years old, spurred by his older brother -- five years his senior -- who fenced from the age of 10. "I'd start messing around with my brother with a pencil, and then it sort of blossomed from there," Bayer said. But Bayer did not immediately dedicate himself to fencing full time, playing other sports like baseball, wrestling and tennis. In his freshman year of high school, Bayer decided to drop his other sports in order to concentrate on fencing. And five years later, he found himself at the centennial Olympic Games. "In fencing, you get what you put in," he said. "The harder you work, the better your results are." Bayer said fencing is a unique and interesting sport because of the varied skills it requires. "It involves so many different things," he said, including "mental, physical [strength], mobility of your legs, mobility of your arms, coordinating your arms and your legs." And Bayer added that many coaches refer to fencing as "physical chess," alluding to the sport's highly strategic nature. "You always have to think about your next move," he said. "It's very tactical?you go in with a game plan because everybody has different strengths and weaknesses." Bayer, who has traveled to numerous tournaments domestically and abroad, said Litvan was a great help in his career. But he emphasized that it was not only his coach who propelled him this far. "It's impossible to make an Olympic team on your own," Bayer said. "It's a team effort between your coach, your family, your friends, your doctors -- it goes down the list." One of those friends is 1994 Penn graduate Tamir Bloom, an Olympic teammate who has trained at the New York Athletic Club with Bayer since he started. "He's fantastic -- he's one of my best buddies," Bloom said. "He's still a kid, but he's incredibly mature." Stanford fencing coach Zoran Tulum, who coached the men's foil trio at the Olympics, praised Bayer's "athletic mind," hard work and sense of humor. "He's definitely a very brave young man with excellent athletic skills," Tulum said. Although Bayer regularly trained throughout high school, many of his classmates were surprised to discover he was ranked No. 1 in the nation. "I'm not the type of guy to go out and parade about himself," Bayer said. Mike Michelson, dean of students at Riverside Country School in the Bronx, Bayer's high school, agreed. "Virtually no one at school knew how much time he was devoting to fencing," Michelson said. "I particularly admire how private he was about all this." For now, Bayer plans to concentrate on school. But he is already looking ahead to the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, where he feels he would have a good shot at winning a medal. But even though Bayer went home from Atlanta without a medal draped around his neck, he still had an unforgettable time at the Olympics. He made sure to take advantage of photo opportunities with gold medal-winning decathlete Dan O'Brien and members of the U.S. men's basketball 'Dream Team.' "I think in three weeks, I met more people than I've ever met in my life," he said.

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